There’s good news on the employee engagement front: employee engagement is on the rise, moving from 61 percent in 2013 to 65 percent in 2015. However, that doesn’t mean business leaders can rest on their laurels or that HR needs to do no more than manage programmatic activities. Sustainable engagement isn’t just a matter of marking off the boxes at scheduled checkpoints. Rather, it is an attitude that makes room for small gestures, random acts of kindness and sincere acknowledgement that in total elevate the value of your engagement program.
Here are five ideas that you might consider or use to drive sustainable engagement. Whatever you do, by making engagement easy, simple, and even fun, you’ll be adding juice to your overall employee engagement program.
1. Encourage managers to let someone else lead department meetings. Letting employees take on that kind of responsibility not only engages them, it also can result in some refreshing new approaches to how a meeting is conducted.
2. Conduct engagement mini-surveys throughout the year. Monthly surveys with just 3-5 questions remind employees that you value them and also deliver better, timelier responses. Shorter and more focused than the annual employee survey, mini surveys can help you to spot trends in engagement and attitudes, and make more timely adjustments. They are also easier for employees to complete and you’re more likely to get authentic, rather than rushed, responses.
3. Solicit employee suggestions. Choose a “best” suggestion each month, and reward those suggestions that can be put into action. Leverage a rewards and recognition platform that’s fast and makes rewards administration easy to support all engagement activities—big and small.
4. Add free fresh fruit, energy bars and snacks to lunchroom offerings (if no lunchroom, conference rooms). This shows that you care for employees’ wellbeing. And it’s not an empty gesture. We know from research that attention to employee wellbeing is a top driver of employee satisfaction and performance.
5. Offer professional neck messages and chair messages during stressful times: budget-cycle deadlines, project/new product rollouts, and during the holiday season. Some employers, such as Google, Aetna, and General Mills, have offered mindfulness training programs to employees. The training has been shown not only to reduce stress but also to improve employee productivity.
Now that we’ve sent some ideas your way, you probably have already come up with some of your own. Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit. These are low-investment activities with the probability of a quick return. If one idea falls short, move on to the next. There’s little to lose and much to gain.
Are you looking for fast and easy platform to reward and recognize your employees? Contact a Marketing Innovators solutions expert today to learn how our SaaS platform can deliver the most meaningful rewards simply and quickly.
Sources:
“2016 Trends in Global Employee Engagement,” AON.
Gallup.com: “Well-Being Enhances Benefits of Employee Engagement,” Dan Witters and Sangeeta Agrawal.
“Mindfulness at Work: A New Approach to Improving Individual and Organizational Performance,” Patrick K. Hyland, Andrew Lee, and Maura Mills, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
